Conversations With A Witch
by Bakageta
Summary: Ficlet Series. 1. Kyoraku Shunsui-If Wishes Were Horses. 2. Urahara Kisuke-A Dangerous Adventure. 3. Kurosaki Isshin-Some Disguise. 4. Yamamoto-The Way of Things. A crossover with xxxHolic.
1. Kyoraku Shunsui: If Wishes Were Horses

Conversations With A Witch

Bakageta

A basic knowledge of xxxHolic is recommended.

Drabble One: Kyoraku Shunsui-If Wishes Were Horses

"If wishes were horses, there would be an easy explanation for all this horseshit."

--Unknown

* * *

When Kyoraku Shunsui walked up to the Dimension Witch's shop, he did it with an accustomed ease. Skillfully placing his feet around the enthusiastic greetings of Maru and Moro, girls named after his own heart. He sauntered up to the front door as if he owned the place until he literally stumbled over someone new, nearly dropping the bundle he was carrying.

"What's wrong with you!? It's rude to run into peo--" The boy began shouting as he picked himself up from the ground, stopping abruptly when he saw Shunsui's Zanpakuto. "You're here to see Yuuko, right Shinigami-san?"

"Yeah, sure am." Shunsui said while nodding. He grinned, he'd bet his hat this boy was of Quincy blood judging by reiatsu alone, and yet he wasn't being watched. It was something to remember for later.

"She's right through here." The boy said leading the way into the building, but before he was able to open the shoji to Yuuko's chamber Shunsui opened it himself.

"YUUKO-CHAAN!" He called as he, there was no other word, flowed into the room and swept the lanky woman off her feet. "It's been too long!"

"It has, Shun-kun!" she replied when Shunsui set her back down on her couch. "Watanuki, get the good sake!"

The boy, Watanuki, Shunsui reminded himself, broke from his shocked stare and moved quickly to get the alcohol. By the time he had returned Shunsui had sat down opposite of Yuuko. Watanuki set the sake on the table and then moved to the wall; where, Shunsui wondered, had the pride of the Quincy gone?

"So," Yuuko began while pouring the sake, "What have you brought me this time Shunsui?"

"This." Shunsui said pulling out the bundle he had nearly dropped earlier. He unwrapped it, revealing a fine silken kimono that seemed to shimmer in a way that made it look, not alive, but something Watanuki had no word for. "It's made of Hell-Moth silk. It's brand new too."

"You spoil me!" Yuuko said as she reached over and snatched the kimono away, somehow now disturbing the table as she did so. "And what would you ask in return?"

"Information." Shunsui said simply, taking a sip of his sake.

* * *

"He never made a wish…" Watanuki said out loud as he watched Shunsui slip away after his and Yuuko's long conversation, none of which he had understood.

"He didn't." Yuuko agreed.

"But, if he didn't have one, how did he get here?"

"He does have one." Yuuko said as she walked out from behind her ornate dressing screen clad in her new kimono. "Or… at least not one he is sure of."

"That's never stopped any of the others." Watanuki said.

"True, but Kyoraku Shunsui is a rare man. He knows the worthlessness of not working for ones goal."

_**Notes**_

-This is the first of several drabbles. Up next, Urahara Kisuke.

-Inspired by Je Chante Pour Passer le Temps by Diva-esqe. As they have already covered Byakuya, I most likely will not. Anyone else is fair game though.


	2. Urahara Kisuke: A Dangerous Adventure

Conversations with a Witch

Bakageta

Drabble Two: Urahara Kisuke-A Dangerous Adventure

"I have often been downcast, but never in despair; I regard our hiding as a dangerous adventure, romantic and interesting at the same time."

-Anne Frank

* * *

Urahara Kisuke swept into the traditional Japanese building before the two doorkeepers could welcome him. He slid his shoes off at the entrance and stood quietly, dripping rainwater. Somehow Kisuke managed to look calm and nonchalant despite his tattered clothing, some of which seemed to have been tied around a wound on his arm, crooked hat, and the damp black cat clinging tightly to his chest.

"You people seem to have a thing for June." A lanky woman observed from the open door of the house's main room. "Dry off some and then come in." She retreated from view.

Kisuke whistled appreciatively, "Damn, Yoruichi, I think she might have you beat."

The cat leapt angrily from his chest, taking care to leave deep scratches with her claws, and glared at him from the floor.

"No need to be so touchy! I was just joking!" Kisuke said letting his Captain's coat fall to the ground with a wet slap.

He entered the main room and found the woman sprawled out over a couch sake cup in her hand. She gestured to a cushion on the floor and Kisuke sat cross-legged on it, Yoruichi at his side.

"This is a very convenient place you have here, Shoutenshu-san." Kisuke said smoothly.

"I try." The woman said, sipping from her cup. "I take it you know what you want?"

"Yep," He said with a smile. "A place to set up shop."

"Somewhere already existing where we can go unnoticed." Yoruichi added.

"An easy enough request." She said and began writing on a paper she had pulled from somewhere. She gave the paper to one of the doorkeepers when she finished who in turn gave it to Kisuke. "Is this satisfactory?"

"It seems to be." Kisuke said after he looked the paper over. "And the payment is?"

"Your name."

"You wouldn't take anything else."

She grinned, "I see you know the value of a name, Taicho-san. I would be willing to take your hat instead."

Kisuke frowned slightly and looked down at Yoruichi who glared angrily back at him.

"I'm afraid I wouldn't live long if I gave you my hat."

Yoruichi grinned in the smug way that only a cat can.

"Oh well…" The woman sighed, "Then I'll make do with your name."

"Urahara Kisuke." He said and stood.

"I wish you luck, Kisuke." She said as Kisuke left, Yoruichi riding his shoulder.

_**Notes**_

-Shoutenshu-san: Literally Miss/Mr. Storekeeper. Kisuke doesn't know Yuuko's name and, as he doesn't really want her to know his, he can't ask without having to give her his own

-up next is Isshin!

-Please review!


	3. Kurosaki Isshin: Some Disguise

Conversations With A Witch

Bakageta

Drabble Three: Kurosaki Isshin-Some Disguise

"I wish that I could share myself, not just some disguise, that takes the place of the me within, hiding from your eyes!"

-Peter Rosen

* * *

The first time Kurosaki Isshin walked past the traditional building he gave it no attention. Admittedly he was in a rush, there were groceries Yuzu had said she _needed_ and ever since Masaki's death responsibility seemed to be the only thing that kept his little girl together, so anything odd he'd sensed around the building had been brushed aside.

The second time he passed it, though, he noticed. There was something about night air, he thought, that amplified the senses. Even with his abilities limited by his gigai he could feel the low thrumming power that filled the air around the small building.

He'd been standing outside the building's gate for roughly five minutes before a young man, Isshin judged him to be about twenty, poked his head out of the building.

"You can come in, you know. If anything you can come in and sit down, it's more comfortable than standing around out there."

"Standing around! Standing around!" Two children shouted as they ran around behind the man in the doorway.

The man just gave a long-suffering sigh.

Isshin glanced down at his groceries, he didn't have anything that would spoil, before deciding a short stop at such an interesting seeming place wouldn't be any harm.

"I take it you're used to that?" Isshin asked as he approached the man at the door.

"You have no idea."

Isshin followed the man into the building, slipping his shoes off at the appropriate place. He was led into a sitting room already occupied by a woman with long black hair. She was sprawled loosely over a fainting couch.

"Welcome to my shop, please, sit down." She said from her position on the couch gesturing to another small couch across a table from the one she lay on.

"This is a shop?" Isshin asked after he'd sat down.

"Yes." The woman replied. "A shop of wishes."

Isshin's eyes widened, he'd heard rumors about this place ever since he'd joined the Gotei thirteen and after he'd defected Kisuke had hinted at its existence. Of course he hadn't taken anything Kisuke said at face value since the incident at Yoruichi's birthday party. It seemed this time his fellow exile hadn't been lying.

"I've heard of it, Shoutenshu-san." He said calmly.

"Good, that saves explaining on my part." She paused. "Do you have a wish?"

The first thing that came to Isshin's mind was 'bring Masaki back' but he dismissed it almost as soon as he thought of it. He had to let her go, and one of the few Shinigami ideals that had stayed with him through the years was that of balance. If he dragged her soul back from whatever plane it now resided in, the price, he suspected, would be too much for him to even begin to think of paying. But, other than Masaki, what did he want?

He glanced at the groceries sitting by his side and smiled wistfully. Yuzu was probably worried about him. She would be pacing all around the house, and Ichigo and Karin, eventually, would be following after her trying to calm her down even though they were just as concerned as she was. The first few times Isshin had come home late he'd found Yuzu near tears. Karin had been awkwardly comforting her sister, and Ichigo had come up to him, wearing a scowl that was cute on such a young child, and told him to be more responsible.

Isshin deeply wished that he'd never had to see that, but the only thing that would take away his children's fears was their mother. Their mother who had died protecting them, though from what, he hoped they'd never know.

"Yes." Isshin answered the storekeeper's question even though several minutes had passed since she asked. "Can you protect my children? Can you hide them from the Hollows and hide the Hollows from them?"

"I can. Do you want to know the price?"

"Yes."

"To hide them from the monsters," She said, "I have to hide them from the shinigami as well. Unless the situation forces it to happen, your children won't be any more capable of seeing Hollows and the shinigami that slay them than any other normal person. For this to work, your children cannot know anything of the truth about shinigami, and you cannot tell them anything of your past."

"How did you know?" Isshin asked.

The woman responded by raising her hand and materializing his reiraku. It was still red, even after all the time he'd spent in a gigai.

"So, are you willing to pay?"

"Yes."

Kurosaki Isshin left the wish shop with a smile on his face. His smile lasted all the way home and though his children's tears and scoldings, because he was protecting them even if they never knew.

* * *

-This is sort of an explanation for why after 15 years of life Ichigo hadn't ever seen hollows or shinigami. But it fits in more with the manga than the anime.

-What, Watanuki's twenty?! Er… well that… How cool would it be if Yuuko's shop was on a sort of dimensional nexus? She is the dimension witch after all, and this would let grant wishes to people from various worlds. It also gives me an excuse for why Watanuki didn't die in the time between Kisuke and Isshin's wishes, not that these drabbles are in chronological order.

-Beta'd by Unsane Chibi and Arwen

-Next up, Yamamoto Genryuusai Shigekuni! (or whatever his name is…) How will I pull that off?


	4. Yamamoto: The Way of Things

Conversations with a Witch

Bakageta

Drabble Four: Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryuusai-The Way of Things

"This isn't good or bad. It's just the way of things. Nothing stays the same."

-Real Live Preacher, From 'RealLivePreacher(dot)com'

* * *

Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryuusai stood in midair above the afterlife's ever-shifting topography. What was a mountain one day could be reduced to a crater the next by a cero from an encroaching Menos or, more commonly, by the attacks and counterattacks of the feuding noble clans. Any lake could be vaporized, any village destroyed, any forest burned down.

Yamamoto stood over a transient world, and it disgusted him. Few new souls could gain a foothold in the afterlife, and those souls among the noble clans were held back by their constant struggling.

He surveyed the land before and below him and sighed.

"It is beautiful, in its own way." A woman observed from behind him. He had had no warning of her arrival.

"I suppose one could say that." He said, turning to look at the woman who had spoken. She was lanky and wore and elegant kimono that looked as if it was worth the entire treasury of a noble household. "But," He continued, "Nothing can come of it. Progress can only occur in stability."

"There are some who would disagree." The woman said calmly, pulling a small paper fan from her sleeve.

"They are wrong."

"You are a strong man." She observed, unfolding the fan and revealing a pattern of butterflies.

Yamamoto waited for the woman to make her point.

"But not all goals can be gained through strength alone."

"And you intend to help me reach my goals?" Yamamoto asked skeptically.

"If you wish for me to do so." She replied.

"How would you do this?"

"It is… complex." She said. "Suffice to say that events would line up favorably."

Yamamoto considered her offer. He was older than almost all of the souls that currently resided in the afterlife, and he was well aware that something could not be gotten from nothing. But if he could build a stable enough base, then all of the souls and clans would fall into order.

"And there would be a cost." The woman added. "The afterlife is not a stable place; its nature is change. It cannot be held still forever and I will not be able to help you as all that you've built falls down around you."

"I will accept your bargain, but the society I create will not fall." Yamamoto said.

The woman made no response, only closing her fan and returning it to her sleeve.

Thousands of years later, as Aizen and his followers prepare to bring down the gates of heaven, Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryuusai will stand over the now unchanging land of the afterlife and wonder if now is when it all comes crashing down around him.

* * *

**A/N:** Here's a short little bit, written entirely in my AHIST 101 class when I should've been taking notes. I've now used up all of my original ideas for these little crossover oneshot, so if there's a particular character, situation, or quote you have and want a oneshot based off of tell me an it might end up as the next chapter.

Great Big Thanks to Unsane Chibi for catching all my comma errors.


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